Odegard: Arizona Sports Drops the Ball with Michael Bidwill Interview

Arizona Sports, the biggest sports talk radio station in the Valley, has been interviewing prominent names on the local sports scene for the past five days.

They call it Newsmakers Week, and the guest Friday morning certainly fit that description.

Hosts Dan Bickley and Vince Marotta had on Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill, who has been in the news a bunch over the past 12 months.

Here is a quick reminder of the top storylines:

• The Cardinals finished second-to-last in a survey conducted by the NFL Players Association, receiving failing grades in several categories for the state of the facilities and the treatment of players and their families
• Bidwill was accused by ex-Cardinals executive Terry McDonough of gross misconduct and discrimination, including poor treatment of two pregnant women staffers and “an environment of fear for minority employees”
• McDonough also accused Bidwill and other top-level employees of instituting a burner phone scheme to contact Steve Keim, the ex-GM who was prohibited from speaking with the organization during his DUI suspension in 2018
• The Athletic and ESPN investigated the Cardinals’ workplace culture in the wake of McDonough’s allegations, and reported examples of the mistreatment of women by Bidwill

To the best of my knowledge, Bidwill’s interview with Arizona Sports was his first since this avalanche of negative news cascaded down.

And yet, there wasn’t a single question about any of it during Bidwill’s on-air stint, as he was instead asked about free agency, the new regime, streaming services and other run-of-the-mill topics.

To be frank, it was a dereliction of duty for Arizona Sports to interview Bidwill and not ask him any tough questions after such a volatile 12 months.

Coaches and players are mandated to speak with the media, but owners can do as they please, which is why an opportunity like this was so rare.

Instead of Bidwill’s feet being held to the fire, he was given a graham cracker, a marshmallow and a piece of chocolate to make s’mores.

There is probably a simple answer for this: Arizona Sports is partnered with the Cardinals and made a conscious decision to avoid these questions to keep the relationship cozy.

Or the Cardinals’ public relations team only agreed to the interview on the condition that no tough questions would be asked.

Or it was a combination of both.

But whatever the rationale, the decision made was the wrong one.

If Arizona Sports was told they could have Bidwill but couldn’t ask him the most pertinent questions for the fanbase, the correct move would have been to decline the invitation.

There is no reason to torpedo your credibility for a blasé 12-minute interview with a team owner.

The local radio hosts have had no issue blasting Kyler Murray, Kliff Kingsbury and myriad other members of the organization over the past couple of years, but if Bidwill has to be handled with kid gloves, then he simply shouldn’t be spoken about or interviewed at all.

I want to take a moment here to address my own hypocrisy. 

I worked for the Cardinals for nearly eight years from 2013-2021, and in that time, avoided, minimized or was forced to remove content that would have been damaging or controversial to the organization.

I chose a stable job and my desired occupation — beat writer of a professional sports team — over communicating the whole truth, and thus I’ve been in the exact same shoes as Bickley and Marotta.

It’s easier to take that path because it’s more conventional and certainly less hectic, but it doesn’t adequately serve the legions of Cardinals fans who pay good money to support their favorite team.

That group deserves answers when serious allegations pop up, and despite Bidwill speaking publicly on Friday, they did not get to hear his side of the story.

Professional sports teams are behemoths and tend to influence many things within their sphere of control, and it’s something local media members and outlets must contend with.

Sometimes the line is blurry and it has to be straddled.

Not in this case. Arizona Sports should have asked the real questions or not done the interview at all.

There was no line to ride.